Comparison

Clone vs a

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Clone

This app provides a powerful Git client for iOS devices, offering advanced code editing, intuitive workflows, and beautiful visualizations of commit history. It allows users to manage repositories, branch, merge, and push code directly from their iPhone or iPad.

Highlights
  • Commit history visualization
  • Code editor with syntax highlighting
  • Branching and merging
  • GitHub/Bitbucket integration
  • Diff views
  • Blame view
Features
Read full description

Clone brings the power of Git version control to iOS. With beautiful visualizations, an advanced code editor, intuitive Git workflows, and powerful integrations, Clone takes Git productivity mobile. Features - Top-notch visualization A graph is worth a thousand SHAs. Clone shows commit history beautifully and quickly, so you can see what that merge commit actually merges. See what changed in amy commit with diff views. For individual files a heat map (blame) shows the who, what and when for each part of the file when you're asking why. - Designed for iPhone and iPad On all devices, Clone supports the latest iOS technologies. Use Clone as a document provider to edit code directly in your favorite editor, including Swift Playgrounds on iPads. Comparing your changes is only a swipe away with the Today view extension, even when editing in another app. Be more productive with iPad multitasking. You can work side-by-side. Write a blog post in Markdown from one app while previewing live in Clone. Commit and push are just a tap away too. Whatever the size, you're covered. - A Code Editor tailored for Git Be fearless with version control. Clone's text editor previews HTML and Markdown. Write your blog next blog post from your device. Clone's editor performs syntax highlighting in 30+ languages and shows line numbers so you always know right where you are. Customize with 5 elegant code fonts, configurable sizes, soft tabs, and line wrapping. It's built around Git, so commit, blame, and revert are always at your fingertips. - Your Git workflow, anywhere Pull, edit, commit, and push from any iOS device. Connect your GitHub or Bitbucket account for instant access to your public and private repos. Use a public key for password-free authentication. View diffs before committing, ignore files, and be a Git master without a command-line. - Advanced Git support: Branch, Merge, Remotes Does git push heroku master mean something to you? What about a gh-pages branch? Clone can push your repos and communicate with multiple remotes. When merge conflicts happen, Clone helps there too. - Powerful integrations: git init to github.com in seconds After connecting to your Github or Bitbucket account, you can clone your repos without typing a thing. Repos you create on your device can be published to GitHub or bitbucket in seconds. Fix a bug, start a blog, or think bigger.

About

a

Run a full Unix-like terminal environment on your iOS device. Execute a wide range of commands, edit files, and even program using included interpreters and compilers. Supports multitasking and integration with Shortcuts.

Highlights
  • Local Unix terminal emulator
  • SSH client
  • File transfer (scp, curl)
  • Text editing (vim, ed)
  • Scripting languages (Python, Lua, Perl, JS)
  • C/C++ compiler
  • TeX distribution
Features
Read full description

a-Shell is a complete local terminal emulator, allowing to run most Unix commands on your iOS device. You can transfer files using scp and curl, edit them with vim and ed, process them using grep, awk and sed. You can work with git repositories using lg2.  Most commands are compiled for iOS native Arm64 format, making them fast and well integrated with the BSD Unix that powers iOS/iPadOS. a-Shell includes Python, Lua, Perl, JavaScript, C, C++ for programming and TeX (texlive 2025, with Tikz and LuaTeX) for text processing. There are also multiple network utilities: nslookup, ping, whois, ifconfig... Type help for help, help -l to get the full list of commands. a-Shell can be controlled from Shortcuts: run commands in order, process files in a-Shell, get the results as text or files, transfer files to other apps... a-shell uses iOS 13+ “multiple windows” ability, so you can run multiple shells at the same time, with different commands, in different directories. You can edit a file in one window with vim and process it in the other with python. Compile your C or C++ programs to webAssembly using clang or clang++, and execute the resulting binary. A complete webAssembly SDK is included (WASI-libc). a-Shell is the complete version. If you need a smaller app, and you don't need a C compiler, a TeX engine, or numpy and matplotlib, there is a-Shell mini.

Screenshots

Clone4 screens
a4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: a at 4.6 against Clone's 3.0. a also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 1) and review sentiment (79% vs 48%). Clone's advantage is iOS requirement (11.0 vs 14.0). On price, update cadence, ads and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Clone sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. a asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

a holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 3.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: a has 553 ratings behind it against 20, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 48% of Clone's written reviews are positive against 79% of a's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Clone ships an update every 5 weeks, a monthly. Both last shipped on September 23, 2026.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
Clone versus a: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterClonea
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.0 (20 ratings)4.6 (553 ratings) — better
Positive reviews48.1% of reviews78.6% of reviews — better
Number of ratings20553 — better
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeksMonthly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
Best chart rank—#19 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS11.0 — better14.0
Further details — not scored
Size18 MB1.9 GB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperDan Leehr L.L.C.Nicolas Holzschuch

Customer experience

Clone

All ratings20 ratings
Positive45.0%
Neutral10.0%
Negative45.0%
Written reviews27 reviews
Positive48.1%
Neutral11.1%
Negative40.7%

a

All ratings553 ratings
Positive88.1%
Neutral4.5%
Negative7.4%
Written reviews294 reviews
Positive78.6%
Neutral10.2%
Negative11.2%

Bugs and requests

Clone

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

a

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Toolbar buttons not accessible in portrait mode on some devices
  • Pasting from clipboard can insert unexpected characters
  • Sourcing certain script files causes crashes

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add support for package managers like Homebrew or APT
  • Implement more advanced shell features like job control and better tab completion
  • Integrate Git for version control
  • Allow installing additional packages and libraries
  • Improve clipboard and file management integration

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Clone

One-time1
  • Publish and Push$9.99
None

a

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Clone free?
Clone is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is a free?
a is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Clone or a?
a is rated higher. Clone averages 3.0 out of 5 from 20 ratings, while a averages 4.6 from 553 ratings.
Do Clone or a have ads?
Neither Clone nor a shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Clone or a?
Clone ships an update every 5 weeks, and a monthly. Most recently, Clone was updated on September 23, 2026 and a on September 23, 2026.

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